Bridging the Gap Between EDA and PLM

Historically, the genesis of most PLM systems is from mechanical design. Because of this, the initial data models did not lend themselves well to ECAD. On top of that, the means to get ECAD data into PLM is cumbersome and foreign to most electrical designers. PLM suppliers have made efforts to improve this experience with many of them relying on third parties to create interfaces.

Regardless of the investment made by PLM vendors, the process to get ECAD BOM, assembly, fabrication, variant, and assorted content into PLM continues to be a cost and efficiency challenge for many companies. With that in mind, what options do you have to maximize your time when transferring data from ECAD to PLM? How can you ensure that you’re providing accurate design information between systems while still adhering to your strict deadlines and budgetary restrictions?

Connecting ECAD and PLM Worlds

The sole function of EDAConnect® is to provide an accurate, usable, and intuitive connection between ECAD and PLM. It contains no persistence layer and stores data as indices from the electrical and enterprise domains ensuring a single source of truth. The primary strength of EDAConnect is its ease of use and intuitive workflow for the designer.

EDAConnect automates the interaction between Altium Designer and Agile PLM systems by focusing on three simple concepts:

Find

Easily search and locate exactly what you’re looking for through a familiar interface in Altium Designer.

Use

Now that you’ve found the approved part you can apply it to your design while keeping all metadata in sync.

Publish

Wizard-based interface guides you through the automated release-to-PLM process right within Altium Designer.

Making EDA to PLM Integration Seamless

EDAConnect removes the manual intervention in today’s conventional release-to-PLM process through a native CAD interface familiar to the designer. With the intuitive, easy-to-use extension to Altium Designer, you can eliminate the effort of manually transferring data between your ECAD and PLM ever again.